KOHALA COAST — Konawaena’s Tayvia Yamagata and Rashai Kailiwai claimed the BIIF girls doubles title, and Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Jakub Petras and Hayden Virtue worked their way to the boys championship on Saturday afternoon at the Mauna Lani Sports and Fitness Club.
KOHALA COAST — Konawaena’s Tayvia Yamagata and Rashai Kailiwai claimed the BIIF girls doubles title, and Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Jakub Petras and Hayden Virtue worked their way to the boys championship on Saturday afternoon at the Mauna Lani Sports and Fitness Club.
The Konawaena girls knew they were going to come out a winner in the championship match at the BIIF tournament. The only question as match time approached was which two girls would claim the title?
On one side of the court, the Wildcats had Yamagata and Kailiwai, a team full of talent, but not a lot of match experience playing doubles together. Both Yamagata and Kailiwai were the top two singles players for Konawaena this year before joining as a unit just in time for the BIIF team playoffs last week.
On the other side of the court stood the Ekstrom sisters. Kira and Haley Ekstrom had played out of the Konawaena No. 1 doubles slot for most of the year and definitely had the edge when it came to experience playing together, but the pairing still entered the title match as the underdog.
As the two teams faced off, it was clear early in the first set that Yamagata and Kailiwai controlled their own fate. Showing surprising chemistry, the duo slashed, sliced, poached and powered their way to an easy 6-0, 6-1 victory to claim the girls doubles title.
“It feels really great to win the title and especially playing with Rashai, who is in her last year,” Yamagata said. “I wanted to get her a high school title and we had fun out there.”
Kailiwai was just as happy to win the championship but she added that it was really hard to play her own teammates.
“It was different than playing most of the other girls, but it was still fun,” Kailiwai said. “This win means a lot.”
Konawaena coach Richard Kahalioumi echoed the sentiment of his senior, but also tried to look at the big picture of having two teams in the finals.
“No one likes to face their own teammates, but to have two doubles teams from the same school in the finals is really saying something,” Kahalioumi said.
As for states, the Konawaena coach has not had a player get past the quarterfinals but he hinted that perhaps Yamagata and Kailiwai had a chance.
“They are both great individual players but their personalities also mix well and that really helps them in doubles,” Kahalioumi said. “The state tournament is tough and their is a lot of competition, but I think Tayvia and Rashai will do well, and maybe reach that next level.”
BOYS
On the boys side of the tournament, it came as no surprise that teams from Konawaena and Hawaii Prep met in the finals. Representing the Wildcats were the duo of Brant Yamamoto and Anakele Apisaloma.
Similar to the girls match, Yamamoto and Apisaloma had the experience, playing together for most of the year, while Petras and Virtue had teamed up in practice but not in competition, with Petras playing mostly in the No. 1 singles slot.
“I played doubles in my country more than singles and Hayden told me we could win the championship, so I went for it,” Petras said.
Virtue was right in his assumption, though it would take three sets to win the title. The duo from Konawaena took the first set before Petras and Virtue came roaring back to win the match 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Playing in front of a mostly Wildcat crowd seemed to help Konawaena early on, but Hawaii Prep coach Jeff Lewis looked to rectify that during the break between sets.
“It’s tough,” Lewis said. “But I talked to them about mental toughness and eliminating external stimuli and they did great after that.”
The Hawaii Prep duo comprised of a freshman, in Virtue, and a first-year transfer student from Slovakia, in Petras, turned their game around in the second set by being more aggressive and poaching more.
“They reacted great and didn’t fold under pressure,” Lewis said. “It was a very mental match.”
Petras and Virtue seemed unstoppable after easily winning the second set, and nearly were, going up 5-0 in the deciding third set. However, Yamamoto and Apisaloma fought back, winning the next two games. Petras and Virtue then closed out the match to claim their title.
For the Ka Makani freshman, the win was a culmination of a plan that he had for himself.
“Winning BIIFs as a freshman was one of my goals that I set a while ago,” Virtue said. “I had my doubts this year after seeing all the other talent on the island, and it was challenging, but Jakub was a gift from Slovakia.”